Craig Renaud

Biography

Craig Renaud is an acclaimed American filmmaker and journalist who, for two decades, operated as one half of the "Renaud Brothers," a duo renowned for their immersive, cinéma vérité coverage of global conflict and human crisis. Working alongside his older brother Brent Renaud, he produced award-winning work for HBO, Vice, and the New York Times, covering everything from the drug wars in Mexico to the frontlines of Iraq. In January 2026, Renaud was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film for directing "Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud". The film is a deeply personal reconstruction of his brother's life and career, utilizing Brent's final footage from Ukraine, where he was killed by Russian forces in March 2022—as well as archival material from their twenty years of reporting together. Released on HBO in October 2025 after winning the Audience Award at SXSW, the documentary was praised by critics as both a memorial and a "master class in the verité approach." Renaud completed the film with the help of Juan Arredondo, the photojournalist who was with Brent during the attack and survived. Prior to this solo directorial effort, Renaud shared a Peabody Award (2015) and two DuPont-Columbia Awards with his brother for their gritty, character-driven series "Last Chance High" and "Off to War". He is also the co-founder of the Little Rock Film Festival.